Contributions of Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gases and Aerosol Emissions to Changes in Summer Precipitation Over Southern China

• Published in: Journal of geophysical research. Atmospheres 2024-06, Vol.129 (12), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Xu, Huiwen, Chen, Huopo, He, Wenyue, Chen, Lefeng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerosols; Air pollution; Anthropogenic factors; Atmospheric moisture; Cerebral hemispheres; Dipoles; Drying; Emissions; Evaporation; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; High pressure; Human influences; Moisture flux; Moisture transfer; Precipitation; Sea level pressure; Sea surface; Sea surface temperature; Simulation; Summer; Summer precipitation; Surface temperature; Trends; Troposphere; Upper troposphere; Wetting
• ISSN: 2169-897X; 2169-8996
• DOI: 10.1029/2023JD040331

This study investigates the anthropogenic contribution to the summer precipitation changes over southern China and the underlying physical mechanisms. Observations show a wetting trend over southeastern China (SEC) but a drying trend over southwestern China (SWC) in summer of 1961–2014. The dipole pattern can be reasonably reproduced by the anthropogenic forcing simulations of CMIP6 models but with weak trends under the external natural forcing simulations, suggesting the vital human contribution to the observed changes. Particularly, anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG) dominate the wetting trend over SEC, while the drying trend over SWC is primarily attributed to anthropogenic aerosol (AA) emissions. Further analysis shows that the GHG concentrations enhance the subtropical high over the western North Pacific (WNP) via the heterogeneous warming of the sea surface temperature, decrease the sea level pressure over eastern China, and increase the atmospheric moisture, facilitating the moisture flux convergence (MFC) and the precipitation over SEC. The GHG‐induced wetting trend is somewhat offset by the inhibited evaporation due to the AA forcing. For SWC, the decreased precipitation is influenced by the anomalous high pressure from India to WNP, which is closely associated with the enhanced Asian AA emission and the interhemispheric asymmetrical distribution of AA emissions. In the upper troposphere, the uneven AA emissions between South and East Asia and Europe weaken the East Asian summer subtropical jet, resisting the western moisture to SWC. Both factors in the low‐and‐high levels suppress the MFC and precipitation over SWC, counteracted by the thermodynamical effects of GHG forcing. Plain Language Summary Previous studies have documented the emergence of human signal in changes in precipitation over China, but how the anthropogenic forcing affects the precipitation changes across China is still unclear. This study examines the influence of human activities, such as greenhouse gases (GHG) and anthropogenic aerosol (AA) emissions, on summer precipitation changes in southern China. Observations show a wetting trend in southeastern China (SEC) and a drying trend in southwestern China (SWC) from 1961 to 2014. The simulations indicate that GHG contribute to the wetting trend in SEC, while AA emissions are responsible for the drying trend in SWC. GHG enhance the subtropical high over the WNP, increase atmospheric moisture, and promote precipitation in SEC. In